Roots & Recipes

The recipe is only part of the record

Adults at the two-hour session can bring up to five family recipes, whether handwritten, printed or kept inside a cookbook. The Vivid-Pix Mobile Memory Station is there to scan them; participants can also record a memory connected to one recipe and take home digital copies of their scans and recording.

That pairing matters to the library’s genealogy focus. A recipe image preserves the written document; a personal account can add context about the people, places and traditions connected to it. The listing describes a preservation and recording activity, not a cooking demonstration or meal.

Further reading: Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗

Contributing to the cookbook is a separate choice

The library invites participants to add recipes and stories to DPL’s Digital Collections for a Dallas-wide digital community cookbook. The event description presents this as a way to contribute, but does not say that online sharing is required to take part in scanning or recording.

It also does not explain the submission, consent or privacy terms for contributed material. Anyone weighing whether to share sensitive family documents or memories should ask the library about those details before submitting them.

Further reading: Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗

Other branch sessions have their own listings

Roots & Recipes travels to library branches, and other November listings describe the same recipe-scanning and story-recording format. Renner-Frankford Branch Library’s Auditorium is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10, from 6 to 8 p.m.; registration is required. Its listing gives a registration deadline of Nov. 12 at 4 p.m., which is after the session, so check with the branch before relying on that date. The listed phone number is 214-670-6100.

Mountain Creek Branch Library’s Auditorium has a listing for Thursday, Nov. 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. That page does not state that registration is required. Highland Hills Branch Library’s Auditorium is listed for Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to noon; registration is required, with a listed closing time of 8 a.m. that day. The pages do not confirm whether places remain, so check each event’s listing before making plans.

Further reading: Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗ · Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗ · Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗ · Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗

A later program takes up the research question

Dallas Public Library has also listed a distinct adult program, Finding Family History Through Food and Stories, for Wednesday, Dec. 9, from 2 to 3 p.m. Rather than a branch recipe-scanning session, it focuses on the Roots & Recipes project’s digital cookbook and how food memories and personal accounts can give genealogical research context about the people, places and traditions in a family’s history. The listing says the project brings together recipes, photographs and oral histories.

The Dec. 9 program is free, requires registration and is scheduled to close registration at 10 a.m. that day. It is offered in person on the eighth floor of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library and online via Zoom; registration is required for either option. The listing does not establish whether places are still available.

The Pleasant Grove session is identified as a Dallas Public Library Genealogy & History program within 250 Years of Us: Reading America's Past, Writing Our Future. The library credits support from Friends of the Dallas Public Library and the General Levi Casey Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Further reading: Roots & Recipes | Dallas Public Library ↗ · Finding Family History Through Food and Stories | Dallas Public Library ↗